Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 34 (2013) 82–95

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Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tust

Some approaches to improve ventilation system in underground coal mines

environment – A computational fluid dynamic study
Agus P. Sasmito ⇑, Erik Birgersson, Hung C. Ly, Arun S. Mujumdar
Minerals Metals Materials Technology Centre (M3TC), National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117576, Singapore

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study addresses gas control in a typical ‘‘room-and-pillar’’ structure in an underground coal mine via
Received 18 October 2011 mathematical model utilizing commercial computational fluid dynamic software. In essence, the model
Received in revised form 13 April 2012 considers conservation of turbulent mass, momentum, species, and energy. Several turbulence models
Accepted 7 September 2012
are tested and compared with published experimental data; good agreement between model prediction
Available online 20 December 2012
and experimental data is obtained for Spallart–Almaras turbulence model. Various design features were
evaluated, e.g., flow stopping designs for improved quality (e.g., removal of contaminants) and quantity
Keywords:
control (e.g., magnitude and direction of airflow). We further focus on the cross-cut region where rapid
Air ducts
Brattice
mining development take place, several ventilation scenarios with and/or without additional auxiliary
Cross-cut region ventilation are investigated for effective removal of methane. Two different cutting scenarios in rapid
Gas control mining development are also evaluated. The advantages and limitations of each design are discussed
Rapid mining and compared not only in terms of quality and quantity, but also in terms of the overall pressure drop
which represent the associated cost of ventilation system.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction tration is slightly lower: e.g., 1% in Germany, 1.25% in UK, 2% in

Coal has become one of our most important energy resources
and will remain so in the foreseeable future. Presently, coal avail-
ability in surface mines is decreasing, whence one has to go deeper
underground to mine coal. However, an underground coal mine is
one of the most dangerous working environments since the pres-
ence of methane and coal dust can result in explosions and/or
health issues for miners. Several underground coal-mining acci-
dents with fatalities have received much attention around the
world: for example, over 1000 casualties in Courrieres France in
1906; 14 dead miners in the 8th Coalbed at San Nicolas (Asturias,
Spain) in 1995; a total of 106 dead coal miners in 17 explosions in
USA since 1980. More recent explosions of methane are summa-
rized in Table 1.
In order to ensure a safe and productive environment in an
underground coal mine, a good ventilation system is mandatory.
According to US law, the methane concentration should be less
than 3% or greater than 20% and the oxygen concentration should
be less than 10% in sealed areas to avoid explosions (NIOSH, 2011).
In other countries, the regulation of permissible methane concen-
⇑ Corresponding author. Present address: Mechanical Engineering, Masdar Insti-
tute of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 54224, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Tel.: +971 2 810 9320.
E-mail address: ap.sasmito@gmail.com (A.P. Sasmito).
France and 2.5% in Spain (Noack, 1998).
A good ventilation system should ensure that the regulatory
limits are met throughout the mine whilst also providing miners
with sufficient fresh air and keeping operating costs to a minimum.
The latter is important as a ventilation system can account for up
to 60% of the total operating cost (Reddy, 2009) – the high cost is
mainly due to the power needed to drive the air flow through var-
ious parts of the mine. There are thus two main competing require-
ments that have to be balanced: safety and cost, for which careful
ventilation design is mandatory.
Over the past decade, mathematical and computational model-
ing has come to play an important role in the research and devel-
opment of cost-effective ventilation system in underground mines.
Herdeen and Sullivan (1993) were among the first who introduced
computational fluid dynamics (CFDs) to investigate flow airflow
ventilation in mines; however, their model was not validated
against experimental data. Srinivasa et al. (1993) employed com-
mercial CFD software to predict dust distribution in longwall face
utilizing Eulerian–Lagrangian formulation. Uchino and Inoue
(1997) validated their CFD model against blowing ventilation data
from experimental counterpart. Tomata et al. (1999) extend the
CFD model by including species equation to predict methane dis-
persion. Wala et al. (2003) developed CFD model for longwall ven-
tilation and validated the model with lab scale data for methane
concentration. Canoo (2004) developed multiphase Eularian model
to predict dust behaviour in more complex geometries. While Parra

0886-7798/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2012.09.006
 A.P. Sasmito et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 34 (2013) 82–95 83

Nomenclature

cp specific heat, J kg1 K1 Greek

Di,eff effective diffusivity of species i, m s2 q density, kg m3
keff effective thermal conductivity, W m1 K1 C fan polynomial constant
L length of the mine, m l dynamic viscosity, Pa s1
M mean molecular mass xi mass fraction of species i
p pressure, Pa
Pr Prandtl Subscripts and superscripts
Q volume flow rate, m3 s1 b bratice
R universal gas constant, J kg1 mol1 K1 dev development
Sc Schmidt i species i
T temperature, K in inlet
U, u velocity, m s1 out outlet
w width of the mine, m ref reference

et al. (2006) simulated flow behaviour in underground tunnel and Table 1

validated against experimental counterpart. Two different ventila- Major coal mine explosion incidents (Dubinski et al., 2011).
tion scenarios, i.e., blowing and exhausting were investigated. Har- Country Date Coal mine Number of
greaves and Lowndes (2007) simulated blowing ventilation in fatalities
mine development region in terms of flow velocities; effect of addi- China 14 February Sunjiawan, Haizhou shaft, Fuxin 214
tional scrubber was also investigated. Aminosadati and Hooman 2005
(2008) studied the effect of brattice length to the air flow velocity Kazakhstan 20 Lenina, Karaganda 43
in the cross-cut region via CFD simulation. Zheng and Tien (2008) September
2006
simulated the diesel particulate exhaust from mining machine in USA 2 June 2006 Sago, West Virginia 12
room and pillar mines via CFD simulation. Torano et al. (2009) Russia 19 March Ulyanovskaya, Kemerovo 108
compared various turbulence models with experimental data for 2007
flow velocities in underground tunnel and evaluated methane dis- Ukraine 19 Zasyadko, Donetzk 80
November
tribution in the underground tunnel. Ren and Balusu (2009) inves-
2007
tigated inertization in longwall gob with 3D CFD model. Liu et al. China November Heilongjiang 104
(2009) developed 3D multiphase flow model for longwall mining; 2009
the distribution of air with and without vapour were compared. USA 5 April 2010 Upper Big Branch, Montcoal, 38
Continuing their previous work, Torano et al. (2011) added dust West Virginia
Russia 8 May 2010 Raspadskaja, Mezhdurechensk 66
to their model and validated the dust behaviour in underground New 19 River Pike 29
tunnel with experimental data; they also compared performance Zealand November
of blowing and exhausting ventilation. Wang et al. (2011) evalu- 2010
ated the effectiveness of air curtain for dust control in long wall Columbia 26 January La Preciosa, Sardinata 21
2011
shearer using CFD model. Recently, Diego et al. (2011) discussed
Pakistan 20 March Sorange district of Pakistan 45
advantages and limitations of CFD modeling for underground min- 2011
ing. They also showed practical use of CFD model which can be ex- Ukraine 29 July 2011 Suhodolskaya–Vostochnaya coal 19
tended to account for mining auxiliaries. Although numerous CFD mine
studies have been conducted in mine ventilation area, less works China 29 October Xialiuchong mine in Hengyang 29
2011 of Hunan province
have been done with the aim to develop cost-effective ventilation
design by evaluating several possible design and scenarios with re-
gards to the safety, productivity and cost.
In light of the competing requirements, this study aims to ground mine by Parra et al. (2006). Various flow stopping designs
investigate methane and oxygen distribution in an underground are then simulated with regards to the flow distribution, methane
coal mine via mathematical modeling in order to improve the ven- accumulation and pumping power required. We further examine
tilation design and to reduce the cost whilst still satisfying safety the cross-cut region where the active mining takes place and
and productivity requirements. In short, flow behaviour in typical possible methane accumulation is high. Six different ventilation
‘‘room and pillar’’ mine structure (see Fig. 1a) is simulated with scenarios are investigated with respect to the methane accumula-
and without auxiliary equipment such as flow stopping, brattice, tion. Two different mine development (cutting) scenarios are
blowing and exhausting fans. Furthermore, in the mine develop- evaluated and compared not only in terms of methane accumula-
ment region (see Fig. 1b), two different cutting scenarios, i.e., right- tion but also change in the system characteristic curve. Finally,
and left-cutting, are simulated to ascertain the methane conclusions are drawn and extensions of the work are
accumulation. highlighted.
The layout of this paper is as follows. First, the mathematical
model is introduced; it is comprised of turbulent conservation
of mass, momentum, species and energy. The model is then 2. Model formulation
solved numerically using the commercial computational fluid
dynamics solver, Fluent 6.3. Four different turbulent model, i.e., Three-dimensional underground coal mining models were
Spallart–Almaras, k-Epsilon, k-Omega and Reynolds Stress Model developed for (i) typical ‘‘room and pillar’’ mining with the size
(RSM), are compared with experimental data of flow in under- of 46  74  2.9 m (see Fig. 1a); (ii) cross-cut region where the
84 A.P. Sasmito et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 34 (2013) 82–95

Fig. 1. Schematic views of (a) an underground room and pillar mine entity; (b) a close-up of a mining development region; and (c) underground tunnel for validation case.

active mining take place (Fig. 1b); and (iii) underground tunnel validate our model with measurements. Details of the geometrical
(Fig. 1c) similar to Parra et al. (2006) for which we compare and parameters are presented in Table 2.
 A.P. Sasmito et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 34 (2013) 82–95 85

2.1. Governing equations Table 2

Base-case and geometrical parameters.

The mathematical model comprises of conservation equations Parameter Value Unit

of turbulent mass, momentum, species and energy as well as the C1 13.5 Pa s2 m2
scalar transport equations for turbulence model. The fan is re- C2 352.6 Pa s m1
solved as an interfacial condition with polynomial function. C3 629.9 Pa
Dduct 0.6 m
r  qU ¼ 0 ð1Þ h 2.9 m
L 4.6 m
Lb 9 m
r  qUU ¼ r  r þ qg ð2Þ Ldev 3 m
Lduct 6 m
where Ldead-zone 6 m
Lpillar 9 m
h i 2 Lroom 4 m
r ¼ pI þ ðl þ lt ÞðrU þ ðrUÞT Þ  ðððl þ lt Þðr  UÞIÞ Ltunnel 36 m
3
pref 101,325 Pa
 qkIÞ ð3Þ Uin 2 m s1
  UCH4 5  103 m s1
c p lt W 74 m
r  ðqcp UTÞ ¼ r  keff þ rT ð4Þ Wb 2 m
Prt
Wdev 2 m
  Wpillar 6 m
lt Wroom 4 m
r  ðqxi UÞ ¼ r  qDi;eff þ r xi ð5Þ
Sct
 Spallart–Almaras
2.2. Constitutive relations
The Spallart–Almaras is a relatively simple one-equation model
We solve for ternary species mixture, xi, comprising of CH4, O2 that solves a modelled transport equation for the kinematic eddy
and H2O. The interaction between the species is captured in the (turbulent) viscosity. The transport equation for v
~ is
mixture density which follows incompressible ideal gas law as 1 h i
r  ðqm~UÞ ¼ Gv þ r  ðl þ qm~Þrm~ þ C b2 qðrm~Þ2  Y v ð13Þ
pM rv~
q¼ ð6Þ
RT where Gv is the production of turbulent viscosity and Yv is the
where R is the universal gas constant and M denotes the mixture destruction of turbulent viscosity that occurs in the near-wall re-
molecular weight, given by gion due to wall blocking and viscous damping. rv and Cb2 are con-
stants and m is the molecular kinematic viscosity, m = l/q.
 1 The turbulent viscosity, lt, is computed from
xCH4 xO2 xH 2 O xN 2
M¼ þ þ þ ð7Þ
M CH4 M O2 M H2 O M N2 lt ¼ qm~fv 1 ð14Þ

where Mi is the molecular mass of species i, and the mass fraction of where the viscous damping function, fv1, is given by
nitrogen is defined as v3
fv 1 ¼ ð15Þ
xN2 ¼ 1  xO2  xH2 O  xCH4 ð8Þ v3 þ C 3v 1
The gas mixture viscosity, l, is defined by and
X x l m~
l¼ P a a with a; b ¼ CH4 ; O2 ; H2 O;N2 ð9Þ v ð16Þ
a b xa Ua;b m
where xa,b are the mole fraction of species a and b, and The production term, Gv, is modelled as

 1=2
2 !12  14
32 Gv ¼ C b1 qe
Sm~ ð17Þ
1 Ma 41 þ la Mb 5
Ua;b ¼ pffiffiffi 1 þ ð10Þ where
8 Mb lb Ma
e m~
The mole fractions are related to the mass fractions as
S  Sþ fv 2 ð18Þ
j 2 d2

xi M and
xi ¼ ð11Þ
Mi v
fv 2 ¼ 1  ð19Þ
1 þ vfv 1
For practical purpose, we present methane concentration in
terms of percentage of methane concentration, defined as where Cb1 and j are constants, d is the distance from the wall, and S
CH4 ¼ xCH4  100% ð12Þ is a scalar measure of deformation tensor which is based on the
magnitude of the vorticity
S  jXij j þ C prod minð0; jSij j  jXij jÞ ð20Þ
2.3. Turbulence models
where Xij is the mean rate-of-rotation tensor and Sij is the mean
The turbulence model is the key component in representing strain rate, defined by
flow behaviour in underground environment (Veersteg and Mala-    
lasekara, 1995). Here, four commonly used turbulence models 1 @ui @uj 1 @uj @ui
Xij ¼  ; Sij ¼ þ ð21Þ
are evaluated and compared with experimentally measured data. 2 @xj @xi 2 @xi @xj
86 A.P. Sasmito et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 34 (2013) 82–95

 
and @ @ @ @x
_
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ðqx
_ Þþ ðqx
_ Ui Þ ¼ Cx_ þ Gx_  Y x_ ð32Þ
@t @xi @xj @xj
jXij j  2Xij Xij ; C prod ¼ 2; jSij j  2Sij Sij ð22Þ
In above equations, Gk represents the generation of turbulence ki-
Including both rotation and strain tensor reduces the produc- netic energy due to mean velocity gradients, Gx_ represents the gen-
tion of eddy viscosity and consequently reduces the eddy viscosity eration of the specific dissipation rate. Ck and Cx_ represent the
itself in regions where the measure of vorticity exceeds that of effective diffusivity of k and x_ , respectively. Yk and Y x_ represent
strain rate. the dissipation of the k and x_ due to turbulence. The effective dif-
The destruction term, Yv, is modelled as fusivities for the k and x_ model are given by
 2 lt
m~ Ck ¼ l þ ð33Þ
Y v ¼ C w1 qfw ð23Þ rk
d
where lt
Cx_ ¼ l þ ð34Þ
" #1=6 rx_
1 þ C 6w3
fw ¼ g ð24Þ where rk and rx_ are turbulent Prandtl number for k and x
_ , respec-
g 6 þ C 6w3 tively. While the turbulent viscosity is computed from

g ¼ r þ C w2 ðr 6  rÞ
qk
ð25Þ lt ¼ a _ ð35Þ
x
m~  Reynolds Stress Model
r ð26Þ
e
S j2 d
2 The model solves for seven additional scalar transport equa-
tions; that is for turbulent and molecular diffusion, stress, buoy-
where Cw1, Cw2 and Cw3 are constants. ancy and system rotation production, pressure strain and
The model constants have the following values dissipation. The RSM model accounts for the effect of streamline
2 curvature, swirl, rotation and rapid changes in strain rate; there-
C b1 ¼ 0:1355; C b2 ¼ 0:622; rm~ ¼ ; C v 1 ¼ 7:1 fore it has greater potential to give accurate prediction for complex
3
ð27Þ
C b1 ð1 þ C b2 Þ flow. However, the fidelity of RSM predictions is still limited by the
C w1 ¼ þ ; C w2 ¼ 0:3; C w3 ¼ 2; j ¼ 0:4187 closure assumptions employed to model various terms in the exact
j2 rm~
transport equations. Thus, the RSM model might not always yield
 k-Epsilon results that are clearly superior to the simpler models in all cases
The model considers two-equation model which solves for tur- of flows to warrant the additional computational expenses. The
bulent kinetic energy, k, and its rate of dissipation, e, which is cou- Reynolds Stress Model is given as
pled with turbulent viscosity. The equations for turbulent kinetic
energy given by @Rij
þ C ij ¼ Pij þ Dij  eij þ Pij þ Xij ð36Þ
   @t
@ @ @ l @k
ðqkÞ þ ðqkU i Þ ¼ lþ t þ Gk þ Gb  qe where @Rij/@t, Cij, Pij, Dij, eij, Pij, and Xij are the accumulation, con-
@t @xi @xj rk @xj
vective, production, diffusion, dissipation, pressure–strain interac-
 YM ð28Þ tion and rotation terms, respectively. These terms are defined as
and its rate of dissipation is
@Rij @ðqa ui uj Þ
0 0
   ¼ ; C ij ¼ r  ðqa u0i u0j UÞ;
@ @ @ lt @ e e @t  @t   
ðqeÞ þ ðqeU i Þ ¼ lþ þ C 1e ðGk
lt
@t @xi @xj re @xj k
Pij ¼  Rim
@U j
þ Rjm
@U i
; Dij ¼ r  rRij ð37Þ
e2 @X m @X m rk
þ C 3e Gb Þ  C 2e q ð29Þ
k
2
In these equations, Gk represents the generation of turbulence eij ¼ edij ;
3    
kinetic energy due to the mean velocity gradients. Gb is the gener- e 2 e 2
ation of turbulence kinetic energy due to buoyancy. YM represents Pij ¼ C 1 Rij  kdij  C 2 Pij  Pdij ;
k 3 k 3
the contribution of the fluctuating dilatation in compressible tur-  
bulence to the overall dissipation rate. C1e, C2e and C3e are constants. Xij ¼ 2xk uj um eikm þ ui um ejkm
0 0 0 0
ð38Þ
rk and re are the turbulent Prandtl numbers for k and e, respec-
tively. The turbulent viscosity is computed by combining k and e k2
as follows and lt ¼ C l ð39Þ
e
2
k where Rij is the Reynolds stress tensor and dij is Kronecker delta. Cl,
lt ¼ q C l ð30Þ rk, C1 and C2 are constants.
e
where Cl is constant.
2.4. Fan model
 k-Omega
The model also considers as two-equation model that solves for
To model the fan, its characteristic curve is introduced as an
turbulent kinetic energy, k, and specific dissipation rate, x9 , which
interfacial condition; the model is represented by a polynomial
is equal to the dissipation rate per unit turbulent kinetic energy
function that is fitted to data from manufacturer for static pressure
(Wilcox, 1993). The turbulent kinetic energy and the specific dissi-
increases over the fan vis-à-vis the flow velocity, similar to our pre-
pation rate are obtained from the following transport equations
vious work (Sasmito et al., 2010). Further, the fan diameter is as-
  sumed to be the same as pipe diameter (see Fig. 1b).
@ @ @ @k
ðqkÞ þ ðqkU i Þ ¼ Ck þ Gk  Y k ð31Þ
@t @xi @xj @xj Dpfan ¼ C 1 ðufan Þ2 þ C 2 ufan þ C 3 ð40Þ
 A.P. Sasmito et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 34 (2013) 82–95 87

Fig. 2. Velocity contours (m/s) for various turbulence model at z0 = 4 m from the dead zone area (Fig. 1c).

Table 3
2.5. Boundary conditions Computational cost for various models.

Turbulence Memory Number of Computational time

 At walls, the standard wall function is used in all simulations. model (GB) iterations (h)
 At the inlet (Fig. 1a and b), air velocity of 2 m/s is prescribed at
Spallart– 0.5 300 2
the inlet, while methane from mining wall is assumed to be at Almaras
5  103 m/s following Torano et al. (2009). k-Epsilon 0.7 700 5
 At the duct inlet, for the validation case (Fig. 1c), the air velocity k-Omega 0.7 1000 8
RSM 1.0 1800 25
is set constant at 12 m/s which is similar to Parra et al. (2006).
 At the outlet, the pressure is set to ambient and streamwise gra-
dient of the temperature and species is prescribed to zero.
multi-purpose CFD software which is based on finite volume meth-
od. It is able to solve complex fluid mechanics, heat transfer, com-
3. Numerical methodology
bustion, multiphase, particle tracking and so forth; detailed
discussion of the software and its implementation can be found
The computational domains were created in commercial pre-
in (Fluent documentation). The equations were solved with the
processor software Gambit 2.3.16; the software can be used to cre-
well-known Semi-Implicit Pressure-Linked Equation (SIMPLE)
ate the geometry like CAD software, meshing (structured and
algorithm, second order upwind discretization and Algebraic Mul-
unstructured) and labelling boundary conditions; see (Fluent doc-
ti-grid method. The convergence criteria was set to 106 for all
umentation) for details. Three different amount of mesh 5  105,
equations.
1  106 and 2  106 were implemented and compared in terms
of local pressure, velocities, and methane concentration to ensure
a mesh independent solution. We found that the mesh amount of 4. Validation of turbulence model
around 1  106 gives about 1% deviation compared to the mesh
size of 2  106; whereas, the results from the mesh size of Unlike in laminar flow model where we can obtain a nearly ex-
5  105 deviate up to 12% as compared to those from the finest act solution, modeling turbulence flow needs special attention to
one. Therefore, a mesh of around 1 million elements was sufficient validation and comparison with experimental data since it is nec-
for the numerical investigation purposes: a fine structure near the essarily an approximation. Here, four commonly used turbulence
wall and increasingly coarser mesh in the middle of the tunnel to models, e.g., Spallart–Almaras, k-Epsilon, k-Omega and Reynolds
reduce the computational cost. Stress Model (RSM) are compared with flow measurements from
The governing equations together with its correspond turbu- Parra et al. (2006); the three-dimensional model is illustrated in
lence model and boundary conditions were solved using commer- Fig. 1c. For the sake of brevity, we refer the reader for details of
cial CFD software Fluent 6.3.26; the software is basically a the experimental set-up to Parra et al. (2006).
88 A.P. Sasmito et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 34 (2013) 82–95
Fig. 2 shows the numerical results of velocity contours for var-
ious models. It is seen that the choice of turbulence model is
important as the predicted behaviour can be different. It is noted
that the Spallart–Almaras model gives reasonably good agreement
as compared to experimental data with maximum relative error of
15%. The Spallart–Almaras model requires the lowest computa-
tional cost as it is only solved one additional scalar equation for
turbulence model; see Table 3 for details of the comparison. As
we are interested in the overall flow behaviour for design purposes,
the Spallart–Almaras model is found to be sufficient whilst main-
taining low and fast computation. We therefore proceed further
with this turbulence model. It is noted that the data available
has an uncertainty level of about 10%. Also the data are limited
for thorough validation.
While experimental evidence and validation for corresponding
designs would be ideal, lack of such evidence does not limit this
study as the leading order physical phenomena are well captured
Fig. 3. Velocity distribution (m/s) in ‘‘room and pillar’’ mining for (a) no-stopping; (b) with parallel stopping; (c) with partial stopping; and (d) with serpentine brattice at
z = 1 m from the floor (Fig. 1a).
in the present model; comparison against several designs from
experiments will be considered in future study to further ensure
the validity of model predictions. In addition, in the deep mines
where the environment is harsh and the condition is unpredict-
able, experimental investigation can be dangerous tasks to assist
on the design of gas control due to safety concern (high risk of
explosion) and expensive cost; mathematical and computational
modeling on the other hand, has come to play an important role
in the design, maintenance, innovation and optimization as there
is almost risk-free and cheaper – which is the theme of this paper.
5. Results and discussion
The numerical simulations were carried out for typical condi-
tions found in ‘‘room and pillar’’ underground mining. In the fol-
lowing, four different flow stopping scenarios are examined.
 A.P. Sasmito et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 34 (2013) 82–95
After which we focus to the cross-cut region where active mining
take place, six different ventilation scenarios and two different cut-
ting scenarios are evaluated.
5.1. Flow-stopping designs
One of the key factors that determine the performance of venti-
lation system is the velocity fields inside the mines. In general, a
higher air velocity results in higher methane removal; more fresh
air is supplied to the mines to dilute the methane and to provide
oxygen for miners to breath. The predicted velocity profiles for four
different flow-stopping designs are shown in Fig. 3. Here, several
features are apparent; foremost among them is that the serpentine
stopping designs gives the most uniform and highest velocities as
compared to other placements. This is mainly attributed to the fact
that in serpentine design, the intake air flow does not split to sev-
eral tunnels as compared to other designs, instead the intake air is
Fig. 4. Methane distribution (%) in ‘‘room and pillar’’ mining for (a) no-stopping; (b) with parallel stopping; (c) with partial stopping; and (d) with serpentine brattice at
z = 1 m from the floor (Fig. 1a).
89
directed towards a single-long-tunnel with several turns; thus
higher air flow rate is achieved throughout the tunnel. Hence, it
can be deduced that by re-arranging flow stopping design, a high
air velocity for methane removal can be maintained.
A higher velocity is expected to have direct impact on methane
removal; this is indeed the case, as can be inferred from Fig. 4,
which illustrates a trend according to which the methane concen-
tration increases a long the tunnel from inlet to outlet region. It is
shown that for case without stoppage, methane accumulation ex-
ists in the dead zone area and mine development region which
may trigger explosion inside the mines. For the case with parallel
flow stoppage, methane accumulation is more severe in the corner
dead-zone region as the air velocity is one order-of-magnitude
smaller than the inlet velocity. An improvement is achieved for
partial and serpentine stopping (see Fig. 4c and d) as the methane
accumulation is reduced especially in the dead zone region. Careful
consideration, however, has to be taken into consideration when
90 A.P. Sasmito et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 34 (2013) 82–95
designing large area ‘‘room-and-pillar’’ mining with serpentine de-
sign as methane build-up in very long passage can result in high
methane concentration, especially at the outlet region.
Keeping pressure drop at a minimum is of interest for reducing
the operating cost of ventilation system; whence a proper flow
stopping design should be able to maintain low methane concen-
tration, whilst keeping the pressure drop to a minimum. The ser-
pentine design requires the highest pressure drop to drive the
flow ( five times higher compared to the base-case); see Fig. 5
for details. This can be expected from more turns in the tunnel
which creates flow resistance as compared to other designs. For
partial stopping, on the other hand, the pressure drop required is
about twice than that for the base-case, but the effectiveness of
methane removal rate is comparable to serpentine design. In addi-
tion, partial stopping requires less stopping construction which re-
duces the cost; also it is easier to seal the mining area once the
production/excavation is finished.
Fig. 5. Gauge pressure (Pa) in ‘‘room and pillar’’ mining for (a) no-stopping; (b) with parallel stopping; (c) with partial stopping; and (d) with serpentine brattice at z = 1 m
from the floor (Fig. 1a).
5.2. Cross-cut region
Thus far, we have looked at the global flow distribution in the
‘‘room and pillar’’ underground coal mining. Now, we look closer
to the cross-cut region (see Fig. 1b) where methane accumulation
is of interest for miner’s safety. Six different ventilation scenarios
in the cross-cut region are simulated; they are (a) without addi-
tional equipment (base-case), (b) with blowing ventilation, (c) with
exhausting ventilation, (d) with brattice, (e) with blowing-
exhausting ventilation; and (f) with brattice–exhausting ventila-
tion. Note that the auxiliaries used in the simulation, e.g., brattice,
duct diameter and fan power rating, are typical in underground
coal mining; the fan characteristic curve is adapted from fan man-
ufacturer (Korfmann). The road header, haulage and conveyor are
not considered in this study.
Fig. 6 presents the velocity contours for each scenario. For case
with no auxiliary equipment (Fig. 6a), a very low air velocity exists
 A.P. Sasmito et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 34 (2013) 82–95 91

in the dead-zone area (one-order magnitude lower than inlet
velocity). This is further mirrored by high methane concentration
(exceeding permissible concentration of 2%) in the dead-zone area
as can be inferred in Fig. 7a. When blowing ventilation is added to
the cross-cut region (Fig. 6b), air flow from blowing ventilation is
seen only in the near dead-zone area and seems to be insufficient
to remove methane accumulation (see Fig. 7b). As the fan is placed
in the exhausting mode (Fig. 6c), it is seen that most of the air
sucked by fan comes from main flow (fresh air), not from dead-
zone area. In this design, methane accumulates in the junction area
up to 1.5% (Fig. 7c); according to regulations in some countries, e.g.,
Germany and UK, this level of methane concentration is not per-
missible, while France, Spain and US allow this amount of concen-
tration. Proceeding to the case with brattice (Fig. 6d), an

Fig. 6. Velocity fields (m/s) in the cross-cut region at z = 1 m for case (a) no-auxiliary (base-case); (b) with blowing ventilation; (c) with exhausting ventilation; (d) with
brattice ventilation; (e) with blowing–exhausting ventilation; and (f) with brattice–exhausting ventilation.
92 A.P. Sasmito et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 34 (2013) 82–95

improvement in the flow velocity within the dead-zone area is
seen; however, recirculation zone with high methane concentra-
tion up to 1% is observed in the middle of the tunnel (Fig. 7c) which
is not allowed in some countries, e.g. Germany.
It has been shown that single auxiliary ventilation is not ade-
quate to drive sufficient air flow to dilute methane within the
dead-zone area. Now, we introduce combined ventilation systems
of blowing–exhausting (Fig. 6e) and brattice–exhausting (Fig. 6f).
Interestingly, for blowing–exhausting case), methane accumula-
tion is higher compared to that for the single auxiliary system
(Fig. 7f). This is attributed to the flow behaviour for which fresh
air from blowing fan is directly sucked-up by exhausting fan.

Fig. 7. Methane concentration (%) in the cross-cut region at z = 1 m for case (a) no-auxiliary (base-case); (b) with blowing ventilation; (c) with exhausting ventilation; (d)
with brattice ventilation; (e) with blowing–exhausting ventilation; and (f) with brattice–exhausting ventilation.
 A.P. Sasmito et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 34 (2013) 82–95 93

Table 4 1000
Pressure drop and parasitic loads for various designs.
950
Design Pressure drop Additional parasitic load
900
Base-case 0.56 Pa –
850
Blowing 1.70 Pa 1.1 kW
Exhausting 1.68 Pa 1.1 kW 800

pfan / Pa
Brattice 3.98 Pa –
750
Blowing–exhausting 1.5 Pa 2.2 kW
Brattice–exhausting 0.73 Pa 1.1 kW 700 FCC
650 initial
left-cut
600
Conversely, brattice–exhausting ventilation yields the best perfor- right-cut
550
mance among others; notably that lesser accumulation (0.2% Final
500
methane) exists throughout the tunnel. 20 20.5 21 21.5 22
Looking to the parasitic loads for each design, i.e., pressure drop
ufan / m s-1
and auxiliary fan power, in Table 4, we note that the base-case re-
quires the lowest pressure drop and no additional power needed Fig. 8. Fan characteristic curve (FCC) and operating point for initial [ ], right-cut
for fan; however, the performance in terms of methane accumula- [ ], left-cut [ ] and final stages [ ].
tion is the worst. Blowing ventilation and exhausting ventilation
design require higher pressure drop (3 times higher than base
case) as well as additional power for auxiliary fan; while the brat- by the fact that the brattice blocks the air and creates resistance
tice ventilation requires the highest pressure drop (around eight to the flow. The combination of blowing–exhausting ventilation re-
times than that of base-case). This can be adequately explained quires the highest additional parasitic loads due to high power

Fig. 9. Velocity fields (m/s) in the mine development areas at z = 1 m for (a) initial stage; (b) right-cut scenario; (c) left-cut scenario; and (d) final stage.
94 A.P. Sasmito et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 34 (2013) 82–95
Fig. 10. Methane concentration (%) in the mine development areas at z = 1 m for (a) initial stage; (b) right-cut scenario; (c) left-cut scenario; and (d) final stage.
consumption to drive two fans. The pressure drop required by brat-
tice–exhausting ventilation is found to be reasonably low (around
20% higher than base-case design) with additional parasitic load;
the low pressure drop can be attributed to the additional exhaust
fan as it creates negative pressure at the dead zone area. Hence,
it can be deduced that brattice–exhausting ventilation has poten-
tial to be used for a cost-effective ventilation design in mines
due to low pressure drop and good methane removal – of course
further optimization is required.
5.3. Mine development scenario
It is well-known that mining environments are dynamic and
changing very rapidly as mining excavation continues using road
header/continuous miner progressing. In essence, changes in mine
environment will also change the ventilation system performance,
e.g., ventilation area, methane flow rate, dust generated and so
forth. To study the impact of rapid development stages in under-
ground coal mining, we extend case (f) in previous section since
it performs best among others to simulate two different cutting
scenarios and compare the flow behaviour as well as methane con-
centration with those at the initial and final stages.
Mining development which includes full cutting and associated
ventilation system is essentially a transient operation; it is, how-
ever, practically difficult to model time dependent cutting cycles.
As first approximation, we assume that the development is steady
and the presence of road header is neglected. We therefore inves-
tigate two scenarios: (i) right-cut (similar to Hargreaves and Lown-
des (2007)) for which the excavation is start from the right side of
the road header digging up to three meter long from the initial dis-
tance, the machine was then reversed and repositioned on the left
side to continue cutting; (ii) left-cut where the cutting start from
the left side of the machine.
It is expected that the mine development stage changes the
ventilation system; this is indeed the case as can be seen in
Fig. 8 where the system characteristic slightly moves to the left:
velocity drops up to around 0.2 m/s (2%) whereas the pressure drop
increases up to 50 Pa (7%) when the mining progressing. The
change in fan-system operating point is mirrored by changing in
flow behaviour, as illustrated in Fig. 9. We note that for the
right-cut scenario (Fig. 9b), the air flow seems to be sufficient to
ventilate the development area. However, this is not the case for
the left-cut scenario (Fig. 9c) as a large recirculation area exists.
This indicates that during the cutting process, main ventilation
 A.P. Sasmito et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 34 (2013) 82–95
itself (brattice–exhausting) is not able to fully ventilate the area.
Thus, additional auxiliary equipment, e.g., scrubber or an addi-
tional fan is required. As the mining progresses and finishes to
dig at the both side (Fig. 9d), it is observed that the air velocity be-
come sufficient again to ventilate the area without recirculation
zone. Note that some adjustment to the ventilation system maybe
required at the final stage, e.g., extend the duct, increase fan power.
As flow behaviour is directly linked to methane concentration,
we note that during excavation, the accumulation of methane in-
creases as can be inferred from Fig. 10, especially in the left-cut
scenario for which the large recirculation zone causes methane
accumulation, reach up to more than 4% (Fig. 10c). The methane
concentration is then reduced toward final stage (Fig 10d). Clearly
additional ventilation equipment such as scrubber or water spray
is required during cutting process to avoid methane accumulation.
6. Concluding remarks
A computational study has been carried out to investigate flow
behaviour in a ‘‘room and pillar’’ underground coal mine. Several
turbulence models, namely, Spallart–Almaras, k-Epsilon, k-Omega
and Reynolds Stress Model, were compared with the experimental
data from Parra et al. (2006). The Spallart–Almaras model is found
to be sufficient to predict flow behaviour adequately in under-
ground environment whilst keeping low computational cost.
It has also been demonstrated that proper flow stopping design
can enhance gas control throughout the mines whilst maintaining
low pressure drop. In the cross-cut region where the active mining
take place, several ventilation scenarios were simulated, it was
found that combination of brattice–exhausting system yields the
best performance. During excavation, right-cut scenario can be
considered and implemented to minimize the presence of recircu-
lation zone. Further, additional auxiliary ventilation is required
during excavation to enhance gas control.
Our future work will carry out simulations which include coal
dust and diesel particulates, road header, haulage and heat gener-
ation from the diesel engine and coal rock. In addition, a multi-
objective optimization study with respect to the fan power rating,
system and fan characteristic curve will be considered.
Acknowledgement
The financial support of the Minerals Metals and Materials
Technology Centre (M3TC), National University of Singapore and
research Grant R-261-501-011-112 are gratefully acknowledged.
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